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Online marketing firm Fifteen Digital has landed several new clients in the hospitality sector after launching a social media training and support service.

The Darlington and Stoke-based business has won contracts with several hotels across the country, including the Crown Plaza in Nottingham and the Holiday Inn in Bolton as well as the Moat House Hotel in Stoke, for its social media services.

The company runs in-house social media workshops with hotel staff and management and also offers additional services which support the social media activity operated by hoteliers.

In the six weeks since the firm began working with Moat House Hotel, it has received three wedding bookings, two Christmas party bookings and recruited an events co-ordinator all through its Facebook page.

The group, which has an additional office in the North-east, is now in talks to increase its offering to Moat House while rolling out its services further afield, having already enjoyed success in the North West and Yorkshire.

Business development manager Sarah Mountford said: “This has really helped me and Fifteen Digital as a whole re-establish what we do.

“People have been noticing what we can do and are really keen to get involved and use our online marketing abilities.

“We run regular workshops which have done really well and we are hoping to expand them into the North-east, where we can manage them from our Darlington office.”

Ross Luckett, assistant revenue manager at Moat House Hotel, said: “Initially Sarah was working on our Facebook page to give it a more professional edge and we decided we wanted a more commercial feel to it.

“We didn’t have the knowledge to do it ourselves but Sarah made it look so much better and has drummed up a significant amount of trade through it.”

Why use a QR code at all?
Many times consumers may want to know more about an advertisement, but they don’t have pen or paper while putting information on your phone can be time consuming and a hassle. So QR codes truly are the perfect solution. To put it mildly, QR codes are quickly becoming local internet marketing’s best assets. QR codes can definitely help your small business succeed. We will discuss how in a second, but first lets understand QR codes a little more.

How does a QR Code work?
Consumers have to simply download an application, sometimes called the barcode scanner application on their Smartphones. Now-a-days most smart phones have these applications already set up and ready to go. All you have to do is take a picture of the code on your Smartphone. At that point you are brought to the website the code is promoting. Simply put, companies use these codes to help advertise their products, so each QR code is connected with a company. In most cases, a company will link back to their website.
Five Unique Advantages QR Codes Provide a Company with a Limited Budget:

1. Pricing: It’s absolutely free! To help you understand, think of a QR code just as you would a URL for your website. The only difference is that your message will look like a barcode as opposed to a URL. All your customers have to do is take a picture of it.

2. The Impression: QR codes can leave a lasting impression on a customer because they transfer directly to the customer’s personal phone. With other forms of advertisement on a bus or in a newspaper, you are just hoping that someone will write down a website and then go type it into their phone or computer. With QR Codes, your customer reaches you directly without any additional effort. Even if you think this is inconvenient, think of the time your customer saves and let’s face it, in today’s advanced society, there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

3. Company logo: QR codes a great way to make your company unique by giving it an individual logo. Consider putting your company logo into the actual QR code design.

4. Local search marketing: QR codes are a great way to integrate all of your marketing. QR codes can link to anything a company wants. For example, increase your number of Twitter followers by linking to your Twitter account. If you’re looking to promote something special, link to Facebook. The possibilities are endless.

5. Business Cards: Include a code on your business card that allows customers to save your company’s contact information directly to their phone. This makes your business card very personal and it’s a great way to integrate yourself into your customers recall.

The potential QR code user base is growing quickly. The percentage of Smartphone owners was estimated to be at 15 to 19% at the end of 2010 and was expected to double by the end of 2011. This base group of Smartphone users are a great group to integrate into your customer base. By using QR codes as a low budget marketing tool you can attract attention to your company.

QR codes are being utilized all over the globe. Companies are displaying them in their windows, advertisers are using them in their signs, marketers are incorporating them in their projects and restaurants are incorporating them in their menus. Soon every business will be incorporating QR codes as well as their logos. Although the technology is fairly new, QR codes are growing in popularity. After all who doesn’t want a broader customer base?
Ajay Prasad is founder of Global Marketing Resources, LLC, which runs a number of e-commerce websites under its umbrella. Ajay’s functional expertise includes website strategy, marketing management, business development, consumer research marketing analysis and strategic planning. Local Search HQ is a Local Search Engine Marketing company that aims to develop an overall Web Marketing and Local Search Marketing solution for small local businesses.

Name : Sarah Mountford

Job Title : Marketing and Business Development

Do you have a Nick Name : Bambi – a reference to my nights out in high heels and alcohol.

Where did you grow up : Nantwich

Give us a brief explanation of what you do : Speak to new clients and assist them with their online prescense and marketing strategies

Whats the most fun aspect of your job : Working with my colleagues at Team Fifteen

When you were a child what did you want to be : Barbie Air Hostess

What do you never leave home without : Make up Bag and Mobile Phone

What was the last thing you made : Shoe Bow

How do you spend most of your time outside of work : With my beautiful daughter Maddison

What is the worst haircut you’ve ever had : When I did a Britney

Favourite Book : “Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris

Favourite Film : Twilight, Love Actually, Legally Blonde

Favourite Album : Take That

Favourite Food : Waggamammas and Skittles

Picture : Sarah receiving her award from Mark Adams – Director

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AN online marketing firm has celebrated its fifth birthday by planning an expansion.

Fifteen Digital’s turnover is rising due to the increase in the number of services offered to clients, including social media campaigns.

John Borthwick, director of the Darlington firm, which also has an office in Stoke, said: “Fifteen Digital’s technology division has just been accepted as a CCTV supplier for Bourne Leisure Group, which owns Butlins and Haven Holidays, and we will also be running social media workshops for Best Western hotels around the country.”

The company’s Darlington office deals mainly with the online marketing side of Fifteen Digital’s operations, including its IT and web development. This is now the focus of the company’s growth.

Middlesbrough man John said: “With the web design aspect of Fifteen Digital, our focus is going to be on the e-commerce website and integration with Sage accounting software, as we are now approved Sage developers.

“It was pretty risky funding our own expansion, but in the long-term this has actually proved a savvy move as it means we have been able to grow through the credit crunch.

“We currently employ 12 staff members with our thirteenth starting very shortly at Darlington. This shows that we have come a long way from what was just the three of us to now having bigger offices in two parts of the country.”

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ONLINE marketing support firm Fifteen Digital is seeing particular interest from clothing companies as it builds its client base in the region.

The Stoke-on-Trent company brought Middlesbrough-bred director John Borthwick back to the North East last year when it set up a Darlington office.

It has since used this outpost to develop a client list including financial services firms, storage companies and retailers. The Darlington office deals with the online marketing side of Fifteen Digital’s operations, which also include IT and web development.

Borthwick revealed the biggest surge of interest had come from the clothing sector, which has seen people increasingly move online from the high street in recent times.

Borthwick said: “We’ve got about four or five clothing retailers on our books at the minute.

“It’s a big growth area for us because the amount of money people are spending online on clothes is increasing massively.

“People used to be worried about what happens if something doesn’t fit, but that doesn’t seem to be as much of a concern any more.

One business that has worked with Fifteen Digital since 2007 is the Greenhouse People, which is now on target to reach a return on its investment of 1,708% compared to 530% initially.

Co-owner Richard Baggaley said Fifteen Digital had turbo-charged the internet growth of the company he runs with his brother Jeremy.

He said: “The efficiencies which we have made in optimising our pay-per-click campaigns have had a speedy pay-back and we also don’t have to commit in-house resources to the detailed work.

“Our e-commerce shop has been successful as we have tested many features in the past to ensure that we are always improving the conversion rate from visitors into buyers.”

This story has been reproduced from the Evening Gazette Newspaper, http://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/latest-business-news/2011/03/21/fifteen-digital-triple-revenues-for-online-greenhouse-retailer-51140-28375211/

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AN ONLINE greenhouse retailer has seen its annual revenues triple in three years after working with Fifteen Digital.

The greenhousepeople.co.uk called in the online marketing support company to help it maximise sales opportunities through a new online shop and a more efficient digital marketing strategy.

In 2007, when The Greenhouse People first began working with Fifteen Digital, its return on investment stood at 530% while its pay-per-click advertising spend was not delivering the sales results needed to make the overheads worthwhile.

Fifteen Digital quickly outlined ways to cut out the waste on the company’s online advertising spend and increase the sales conversion rate of people visiting the site.

By 2008, the retailer’s annual sales had more than doubled and three years later, the company had achieved the same sales revenue by February 14 as it had in the whole of 2007, and is now on target to increase its return on investment to 1,708%.

Richard Baggaley, who runs the greenhouse business with his brother Jeremy, said: “Working with Fifteen Digital over the last few years has turbo-charged our internet growth.

“The efficiencies which we have made in optimising our pay-per-click campaigns have had a speedy pay-back and we also don’t have to commit in-house resources to the detailed work. Our ecommerce shop has been successful as we have tested many features in the past to ensure that we are always improving the conversion rate from visitors into buyers.”

John Borthwick, director at Fifteen Digital, said: “We have shown what can be achieved in online trading with some expert assistance. Many online retailers don’t realise what a difference investment in improving their ecommerce strategy can have on their earning potential.”

Fifteen Digital employs nine people and has offices in Darlington and Stoke-on-Trent and is in the process of expanding its online marketing and development teams. The firm is also on the hunt for partnership arrangements with fellow web development agencies that may wish to offer the online marketing services to their clients but do not have the skill set in-house.

This is not good news for anyone involved in the e-commerce sector.  There is no set punishment established for non-compliance with the new PA-DSS.   If an online storeowner is found to be non-compliant then they will likely be charged increased merchant fees and penalties, face hefty fines and in some cases have their merchant account or even their entire website terminated.

Most of the confusion and controversy revolves around who exactly needs to comply with the new DSS.  The answer to this is somewhat complex but the primary rule of thumb is that if your store processes credit cards online then you need to use a shopping cart that is PA-DSS certified in order to be PCI Compliant.

As an e-commerce merchant, vendor or retailer (those operating a business online), it is your duty to ensure you are utilizing fully PCI Compliant Hosting and that your shopping cart application is PA-DSS certified.  If either your host or cart is not compliant with the PCI than your site is in trouble.  Many carts and other merchant service providers are still shuffling to get scanned and added to the list of compliant applications before the July deadline.

If you are in the market for new shopping cart software than you do not want to use a program that is non-compliant with the PCI or PA-DSS.  It is not worth losing money or possibly your business over something so simple to remedy.  The responsibility falls on you – the storeowner – to find a host and cart that are compliant with the PCI and to fulfill the required network scans and questionnaires.

PCI Compliance vs PA-DSS – what’s the difference?
The PA-DSS (Payment Application – Data Security Standard) applies to products that are distributed as applications that people can purchase and then do whatever they wish.  For example, this applies to shopping cart programs and e-commerce solutions.  The DSS started as the PABP (Payment Application Best Practices) by Visa before becoming affiliated with the PCI Security Council, which represents all five major credit card companies.  In order to be PCI Compliant you must be on a DSS certified application.  In other words, your cart must be compliant.

PCI Compliance is a broader set of rules and guidelines.  The PCI Compliance rules are the standards for the way in which credit card transactions and other confidential information is processed online.

As of July 2010, both PCI and PA-DSS Compliance are necessary for a site that accepts credit card payments.  The PCI applies to all e-commerce businesses, web hosts, shopping carts, payment gateways and merchant account providers.  When a company becomes DSS certified they are then added to Visa’s list of compliant companies.  The PCI Compliance rules are the standards for the way in which credit card transactions and other confidential information is processed online.

In order to be fully PCI compliant with the new PA-DSS, level 4 merchants must be running compliant applications on their site (such as their shopping cart).  Their web hosts must also be PCI compliant by using properly encrypted networks, regularly updating their anti-virus software and performing regular system scans.

There are a number of PCI scanning companies approved by Visa and MasterCard that will help small merchants pass PCI audits and complete the PCI questionnaire in order to show PCI compliance. Being fully PCI and DSS compliant is like having an insurance policy in the event of a security breech.

For the list of requirements that QSAs will be checking for in your scan check out:

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/pci_pa_dss.shtml

By Forrest Yingling
Forrest Yingling is the Marketing Director for WebNet Hosting, Premier Partner Miva Hosts since 2004.   WebNet Hosting provides PCI Compliant Miva Web Hosting and e-commerce solutions

HTML
Some mobiles, like the iPhone, are very good at translating web pages into a smaller size without losing layout and function. But many are not, and non-smartphone mobiles usually only support a very limited version of HTML 3.2. It is best to use basic formatting and layout tags. Tables are not supported on all phones, so it is best to not use them.

Content
Content is key, especially when it comes to mobile devices. It has to be engaging and interesting, but it also has to be easy to read and to navigate through. Text should be in small chunks, with lots of white space. If you can lay your text out in one long column, it will be easier to scroll through and read on a tiny screen. Also, use a basic font…many fancier fonts are not available on cell phones.

Images
Keep graphics to a minimum, and make sure they download quickly and can be resized according to the monitor they are being displayed on. Remember, mobile screens are tiny! The smaller the dimensions and the quicker the download time, the better. For sizing, relative sizes work better than absolute sizes.

Navigation
Web design for mobile devices must take into account ease of navigation, and placing it at the top of the screen makes for a frustrating experience on a cell phone. Have the content show up first, and keep links at the bottom. For touch screen devices like the iPhone, long link text is easier to tap on than short links, so use more than three words for your text links.

If your website is more complicated, consider creating a version of a webpage specifically for mobile users. Place a link at the top of your home page so it is the first thing mobile users see. You can make the link invisible to regular users if you like, so only people on cell phones will see it.

These are just some basic tips on web design for mobile devices. The best way to see if your site is keeping up with your visitors is to view it on several different devices, and see how easy it is to view, read and navigate. If you find yourself getting frustrated, then it’s time to make your site mobile friendly!

Fifteen Digital’s E-commerce platform, Fifteen Shop, is natively mobile friendly, with a specially adapted version as standard. It offers a sleek design while retaining the full functionality of the original site. See Fifteen E-commerce for more info.

This past month was also the first time Google dipped below 90% since August of 2009, but it shows little sign of losing its global dominance any time soon.